GoFundMe CEO: One-Third of Site ’s Donations Are to Cover Medical Costs

One-third of all donations on the popular fundraising site GoFundMe goes towards health care costs, the company’s CEO told CBS News. Founded in 2010, GoFundMe helps users create fundraisers for dozens of categories, including education, faith and business. Nearly 250,000 campaigns have been set up through the site to help pay for health care costs, raising $650 million in contributions, according to the company’s website. Solomon said he never expected such a large portion of campaigns to be focused on health care. “When we started in 2010, it wasn’t purposefully set up and built to be a substitute for medical insurance,” Solomon told CBS MoneyWatch. “We weren’t ever set up to be a health care company and we still are not. But over time, people have used GoFundMe for the most important issues they are faced with.” Over the past few years, crowdfunding — raising small amounts of money from a large number of donors online — has become one of the main ways families seek to pay medical expenses. One possible reason for the rising demand in crowdfunding health care costs could be the drop in health insurance coverage in recent years. According to a new report from Gallup, uninsured rates in the U.S. have reached a four-year high, with nearly 13.7% adults in the U.S. reporting they are uninsured. Coverage is at its lowest since the Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance mandate was put into effect in 2014...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized health insurance Healthcare onetime Source Type: news